"Stay." Orchid said to Janine as she entered her bedroom and shut the door behind her. She then made her way to the wardrobe and retrieved a crystal. She had watched Apollo fiddle with it a few times and knew how it worked at this point so she activated it and waited patiently.

...

Sophia was sat in her penthouse, wearing a new Emphemra dress that had cost her a pretty penny. She was excited to show off to Apollo the next time she saw him. The cleavage was quite ample after all... Plus it stretched, a lot, so she could wear it while her hooves were out...

Her thoughts didn’t stay lecherous for long as she was not alone. Accompanying her was Xeti. The alien from the race known as the Latchak, that had come to try and kill Janine a few months ago. "Report to me." Sophia said to the completely naked green and black alien.

Sophia was taking a twisted delight in the wounds all over the biped’s green and black body body. After Keyla left, the alien got some metaphorical bite back, it took Sophia weeks to break the Latchak herself, but now here it was in front of her docile.

"Yes, Mistress." The alien spoke, though its face did not move. "Thanks to your experiments, my link to my race is permanently severed. I am all alone. I can feel the parasite from your poison growing in my Mindspace and am actively nourishing it, as you desire. It will not be long until I safely join your cult. I have removed all needless body bio-augments to make way for your gift, the only one I cannot remove permanently, as it would kill me, is my faceplate. Though it is now as flimsy as the rest of my skin in its natural state and should be malleable."

The alien then squirmed under Sophia’s intense gaze and resumed.

"Per your instructions, I have also rejuvenated my reproductive organs and my body is now back to my biological default. I would estimate I am 87% weaker now than when I made the foolish mistake of attempting to take the life of Apollo’s Sepiida."

Sophia stood up and looked up at the close six and a half foot tall alien. She walked forward and smirked and Xeti lowered herself so she was on eye level with Sophia. Sophia then grabbed Xeti by the jaw and stared into the aliens’ crimson red eyes.

She tilted the head left and right. She then pushed the female’s dreadlocks to the side and looked at her entire face and nodded.

"Hmm, I suppose even without lips, you are rather attractive. Those patterns around your face and your flat, yet angular nose and long neck; just perfect for choking... I could see Apollo finding you interesting. Especially so considering he hasn’t laid with any aliens yet... Well, aside from the outer family and Janine. But we don’t count."

"M-Mistress, may I speak freely?" Xeti asked and Sophia narrowed her eyes.

"Define ’freely’. Go ahead."

"You say when the Parasite takes hold, I will become one with you, correct? So would I not be ’alien’ to Apollo anymore?"

"Using your free moment of speech to ask about the mate... Good. You are learning. It will be decades before you are considered a part of the outer family, the first step is hybridisation. You will still appear as you look now. And you look different compared to the rest of the cult. So yes, you will still be considered an Alien. But worry not, Apollo sees us all as his lover. All those with the genes of the great mother. For those individuals, his love is eternal~"

Sophia closed her eyes and bit her lip, her hand moving and resting on her sternum as she became overwhelmed with intense emotion. She decided to flush the emotion away into the rest of the underlink, a reward for her underlings. A bonus of sorts for them.

As she opened her eyes, Xeti was looking away from her, a sign of docility. Proving she had no ulterior thoughts.

Sophia noticed that it seemed Xeti had another question and considering she was in a good mood, was about to allow it, however a communicator suddenly chimed away.

Sophia moved at rapid speeds arriving at the bar where she left the crystal and picked it up. "Apollo? I thought you went to war? What happened? Did you decide to take the crystal with you? Are you horny? Do you need me to take some pictures for you and-"

"-It’s Orchid. Is the Bloodfiend back?"

Sophia looked at the communicator in her hand baffled before bringing it back to her ear. "Orchid? Since when do you use tech? Ugh. I am so pent up, I was so excited to talk to Apollo just now. How are-"

"Is the Bloodfiend back?" Orchid repeated herself. Sophia couldn’t feel the effect, but the way Orchid spoke, she was using her hive authority to shut her up so she replied, all business.

"No, she is extremely late. She said her job would take two months, it’s taken much longer. I believe she overestimated herself compared to her old targets. Why?"

"Orchid has had to speak to two humans today who came looking for Apollo in correlation to the ’Sanguine Butcher’. Orchid is worried the Bloodfiend is a threat to Apollo-loves happiness. Orchid needs to know if she needs to leave and get the queen to retrieve him from this galaxy with overwhelming force."

Sophia pinched her glabella. "Orchid, that’s not what is happening. Kathrine called here the other day about some detectives trying to figure out Keyla’s identity. They have nothing on Apollo. He is safe. However, if you desire, I can put the risk of the cult at risk to reach out to Keyla. As I too am curious about her whereabouts."

"You put your cult over Apollo’s guaranteed wellbeing?" Orchid said sternly at which point Sophia panicked.

"No no no! Of course not! Apollo-mate before everything! I will try and reach out to her now!"

"Keyla’s mind has been touched by the queen. Reach out for the queen’s trace and not Keyla, it will reach back, you will be undetected." Orchid stated and Sophia began.

She closed her eyes and opened her Mindspace. The countless number of branches piercing out from it became blurred the further they went and at a certain point, they became invisible, almost impossible to traverse her mind to. Ones on other planets in the core worlds were barely visible to her and those further were uncontactable without risk. The four furthest from her were easy to identify though. Delilah, Ronnie, Willow and Keyla. Willow was in the opposite direction from the rest of them and was easy to rule out, but following the path to figure out which of the three was extremely difficult. Branching off her underline for even a fraction of a second could leave her and by extension the under link at risk of infiltration.

Focusing her attention, she searched for the queen’s presence in the direction of Keyla. It was difficult. It was not her function to reach out this much, but she succeeded, she could feel a spec. A lingering afterthought in the mind of one of her children. It gave her a pleasant biological stimulation to feel the queen’s intent again. She locked onto it instantly and could build the connection to Keyla. The branch became illuminated by the queen’s touch, allowing trivial acces and a moment later...

’Fuck me Apollo~ Oh yes! Ahhh~ Mmmh~ fuck me on all these dead bodies we have just murdered! Ahhh! Cumming! Ngghhhaa~ Breed me! Make me your bloody bitch! Nnggh~’

The intense graphic imagery Sophia was seeing as she connected to Keyla left her stunned. The sensation she was feeling... Keyla’s imagination was that strong, it actually felt like Apollo was somehow pounding her senseless. She wanted to get lost in the sensation for a moment, but Orchid was waiting for her.

"Keyla."

"Ah!! Back off, you spooky bitch! He’s mine!" Keyla screamed before continuing to pleasure herself senselessly.

"Keyla!" Sophia pressed again and suddenly Keyla felt herself tense up, the image of Apollo in her mind disappeared and she opened her eyes. Looking around she was in her bunk before realising.

"Wait what the fuck? Mama? Why are you reaching out? Did something happen? It’s dangerous for you to do this, I am so far away!" Keyla exclaimed as she stood up, ignoring the wet sensation of her panties.

Sophia got straight to business. "Keyla, where are you? Two detectives are looking for Apollo in correlation to the murder of that Archon you killed. Is he in danger?"

"What? Thorn and Malone? Please, they couldn’t even find me when I was a child. They are just chasing straws. They have nothing on Apollo. They are probably just following the Kathrine trail. It will be fine. Oh, while I have you, I’m not sure how much longer this is going to take. It’s already taken waaaaaay longer than I originally planned. The Lochagos put me on this super training, but I sort of kicked the ever loving shit out of the elites that were supposed to beat me up on the first day and I kind of skipped it. Don’t worry though, as soon as I find a way to get alone with her, in a place that has no cameras, as I mean seriously there are so many fucking cameras in this place, I will off her and make another painting for Apollo."

"Lochagos?" Was all Sophia could manage to understand out of Keyla’s rant. Well that and Apollo was seemingly fine.

"Keyla? Where are you right now?"

"Oh? Did I not say? Sorry. It must be like my mind was elsewhere, like thought fucking the only person I care about... I joined the army! Fun right!"

Sophia did not find it fun...

"You did what!?!"